Want to hear something mind blowing?
TRUMP spent $28M on Facebook ads in October.
BIDEN spent $31M on Facebook ads in October.
Between them they SUCKED UP over $60M of US ad inventory.
At an estimated $20 CPM guess how many people saw their ads?
Three billion ad impressions.
How many people ACTIVE on Facebook in the US each month?
About 200M.
Decent frequency and reach.
That’s just one month of leaked ad data that was bouncing around the interwebs.
Does it make sense now as to why CPMs were higher in the US?
But that doesn’t explain why ad costs worldwide are also up. This is what Mark Z said recently in an earnings call:
“there are now 10 million advertisers on Facebook.”
He also said monthly active users were down by a million (or more).
To cap it off I recently shared some data from our own ad accounts for comparison in a live workshop.
This Facebook report shows data from Sept 2019 to Oct 2020 from our agency client ad accounts (not including our own Ecom/Digital Products).
Of note are the CPM levels from October 2019 (just above $10) and Oct 2020 (closer to $13).
Whilst these are only representative of the ad accounts we’re monitoring and does not represent entire industries, the spend levels and how much of the spend goes through the US and worldwide is a good indicator of trends.
That costs went up earlier end of Q3 and continue high into Q4.
Covid-19, economy and job concerns, people worried about savings, plus fewer monthly active users and more advertisers account for a lot of the rising CPMs and lower conversions worldwide – not withstanding the random ad account bans causing havoc through 2020 in the lead up to the elections.
In fact we mutually agreed to end a contract with a beauty client few weeks back – conversion rates above 5% yet… with CPMs hitting $40-50 it was difficult to make it profitable enough to reinvest in growth.
So they opted out of Q4. This is the first time I’ve had this kind of bench-sitting conversation about Q4.
They won’t be the first or the last. I said something similar to a coaching student that’s been struggling with high CPM since September.
Sometimes its not you, its them. Facebook. Your competition. The economy. The elections.
If you’re planning on sticking around for a busy November then there are a few things for you to consider:
- Don’t let ego get in the way of a good business decision. If you can’t afford Q4 strongly consider whether Facebook ads is right for your business right now.
- If you’re looking for alternative ways to generate revenue, whether that’s new paid channels (like Google or Snap), or optimising your funnel or driving new organic traffic check out what our expert speakers in our 20 Ways To Scaling Ecommerce In Q4 – EFT Special >>
- If you do still want to try maximise sales this Q4 then my December 2018 talk in Bangkok is still valid and full of LOTS of actionable tips to use right now >>
- If you’re looking for simple, to the point, testing and scaling strategies to plug and play right now, then check out how Ben Malol created a huge 50,000% ROI from a tiny investment in Q4 2019 >>
- And finally if you’re serious about Black Friday you still have time to maximise potential. Just ensure you follow my BF/CM survival guide >>
No matter how much chaos there is around you, the only way to remain sane is to focus on the things you CAN control.
For Facebook: that’s your ads, audiences, bids, budgets, landers, offers, funnel, emails etc. You’l find there is still lots you can be working on right now.
Depesh